Under this section, you can get ore information about European Union programs that support the development of Small and Medium Enterprise (NMV), Trade, Innovation, Empowerment and Competitiveness. Actually, the Albanian business is able to participate in these programs by establishing direct links with EU member states and learning from positive experiences in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in all its forms. These programs provides new opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises in Albania, but also the SMEs of EU countries that have business relations with Albania to develop together.
COSME – Programme for Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
COSME is the EU programme that assists entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises in their initial phase of activity, facilitates access to finance, their internationalization, and supports authorities to improve the business environment and enable economic growth.
EU member states, candidate countries, aspiring candidate countries as well as some other countries in the region, are part of this program which is a continuation of the Framework Program for Competitiveness and Innovation (CIP) 2007-2013. Direct beneficiaries of COSME program are respective SMEs of participating countries, business service organizations, central and local authorities. Actually this program is operational for the period 2014-2020 with a planned budget of € 2.3bn.
COSME will support:
- • better access to finance for SMEs
- • access to markets for SMEs
- • entrepreneurship
- • more favorable conditions for business creation and growth
Additional information on this EU program is available on the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/cosme
This program has announced the call for applications until June 29, 2017: "COS-TOURCCI-2017-3-03: Supporting the promotion and development of transnational thematic tourism products linked to cultural and creative industries"
For more information about the deadline, criteria and documentation click on the link: https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/cos-tourcci-2017-3-03-supporting-promotion-and-development-transnational-thematic-tourism-products
EEN - Enterprise Europe Network
The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the world's largest network for competitiveness and entrepreneurship, supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to take full advantage of the business opportunities in the European Union. This network was established in 2008 as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Program (CIP) and since January 2015, has become part of the COSME program. The EEN is an important instrument of the EU strategy to promote business and employment growth by providing services to SMEs as well as resources for other businesses, universities and research centers.
Since 2012, Albania is part of the EEN network as a consortium led by the Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA) together with the Research, Technology and Innovation Agency (ARTI) and the Regional Development Agency (RDA). The creation of this consortium aims to cover three dimensions of cooperation: business cooperation, technological cooperation and research cooperation, as well as the involvement of various institutions at the national and regional level.
The Enterprise Europe Network is a good opportunity for Albanian SMEs in finding strategic partners and expanding into new markets and it aims to help Albanian small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of business opportunities. Also, Albanian enterprises can benefit from potential partnerships to seek innovation and technology transfer partners that will help them to grow steadily to become more competitive in providing their products or services for export.
The network comprises around 600 business support organizations from more than 60 countries, serving as a one stop shop for business needs in seeking international partners from a database that contains over 7,000 business profiles where Albanian companies can find potential partners.
Additional information is available on the following link: http://een.ec.europa.eu/about/about
HORIZON 2020 - The largest European program for Scientific Research and Innovation
Horizon 2020 is the largest European program for Scientific Research and Innovation by making available a fund of roughly 80 Billion Euro valid for 7 years (2014 to 2020), apart from the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more progress, scientific discoveries, and the implementation of world-wide ideas.
Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument aiming to enable Innovation Union policy, a major initiative aimed at ensuring Europe's global competitiveness.
Viewed as a boost to economic growth and job creation, Horizon 2020 has the financial support of European leaders and members of the European Parliament. They believe that research is an investment for the future so they have included on the European Union projects in order to promote sustainable, inclusive and rapid employment and growth. By combining scientific research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve these goals by focusing on outstanding science, industrial leadership and addressing social challenges. The aim of this project is to ensure that Europe will provide science at world level, remove barriers to innovation and facilitate cooperation between private and public sectors to work together to better convey innovation.
Horizon 2020 is open to anyone with a simple structure that avoids bureaucracies and reduces time so that participants focus on what is really important. This approach ensures that the project is implemented as quickly as possible and achieves results in a faster time.
Additional information on the application process on this program, you may find at the Research, Technology and Innovation Agency website: http://www.akti.gov.al/dokumenta/Si_aplikon_horizon2020.pdf
